Idea: High-Speed Packaging Machine

Again, an entry in my blog series “Ghost of Done,” where I toss ideas into the ether, sometimes more, sometimes less elegantly, so I may clear my head again. 😄 This one cost me quite a bit of sleep.

State-of-the-art industrial machines often seem to rely on parallelization to increase throughput. Instead of accelerating certain assemblies, more assemblies are added, or the holding capacity is increased. In my view, this is due to limitations in acceleration. Processing stations are often fixed in place while the product is moved. This results in the throughput of a lane being limited by the processing time of the slowest station and the slowest dynamic element in the sequence chain.
So it’s not surprising that the industry turns to parallelization here. But are there other possibilities?

Using a pouch-packaging machine as an example, I want to present my idea of how large throughputs per lane might be achieved.
In the following example, several conveyor belts supply pouches, identical in shape but with different contents, to the conveyor belts of the main machine. Afterwards, they are arranged according to recipe, pressed together, pushed into a box, the box is closed, and then discharged from the machine. Regarding possible formats, the pouches should always have the same dimensions. Packages may vary in size depending on the format and may contain a variable number of pouches in a variable number of rows per box or boxes per package.
The setup and closing of the carton won’t be considered in detail here.
We assume that the pouches lie sufficiently parallel to the conveyor belt and may enter the machine in any number of rows.

• The position of the pouches is captured by camera or sensors.
• Small Beckhoff XPlanar movers move into position underneath drop chutes where pouches are expected.
• The pouches fall over a generously sized roller into the drop chutes, straightening and orienting them. Sensors detect the exact moment when pouches exit at the bottom.
• The pouches are caught by the movers. The tool on the mover has a recess that limits pouch movement during travel. The pouches stand upright in the tool on the mover.
• Next, the pouches enter a chain that transports them further. The chain can be physical or virtual, such as a Beckhoff XTS system.
• The XPlanar movers merge into the flow and match the correct positions in the chain. The correct product arrangement in the chain is established at this moment.
• A finger on the XPlanar mover’s tool actuates an element on the chain tool. A spring clamps the chain tool onto the pouch. This happens at full machine speed. Neither the chain nor the movers slow down for the transfer.
• Each station transfers its variation of pouches to the correct places in the chain until it is full.
• The full chain reaches the conditioning zone. A fixed plate is located there underneath, just at the height of the bottoms of the passing pouches.
• A small Beckhoff XTS system at the conditioning zone has alternating pusher and side-plate tools mounted. A pusher inserts itself between two pouches in the product chain.
• A fixed cam tensions the tools on the product chain as they pass by. This releases the pouches ; they fall onto the plate and slide further in the chain’s travel direction.
• The pusher, which had previously been moving at chain speed, now slows down and thus compresses the released pouches behind it.
• The chain continues at the same speed, and the now-empty tools are pulled back to the beginning of the machine.
• Another pusher inserts itself between the chain tools and behaves like the previous one. Between the pushers are side plates that separate the pouches from the XTS mechanics.
• The pouches now located between the pushers and compressed in the direction of travel are aligned in two further dimensions by fixed guides: one from above and one from the side.
• The dimensions of the moving pouch bundle now match the space intended for it inside the box.
• A Beckhoff XPlanar system transports the upright boxes. The XPlanar movers line up beneath the pouch-formatting area and accelerate for filling.
• The fixed bottom plate, side guide, and top guide on three sides of the pouch bundle come to an end. On two linear-motor axes there is a side plate and an ejector plate. Both are long enough to hold at least two pouch bundles. This filling assembly seamlessly takes over the pouch bundle, which at this point is held only by the pushers and side plates. The bottom is open.
• The XPlanar mover and the filling assembly synchronize.
• The side plate on the filling assembly, the side plate on the small XTS system, and the pushers release the pouch bundle simultaneously. The bundle is no longer compressed. For the pushers, this is commanded via the XTS system; the side plates can be actuated mechanically or electromechanically.
• The ejector pushes the pouch bundle in a controlled manner into the box so that all pouches reach their final position in the box simultaneously and do not slide past each other. This also makes it possible to run with different speeds while gravity remains constant.
• For formats requiring multiple boxes per package, the same mover can return for another filling. For formats requiring a single box with multiple rows of pouches, intermediate plates on the filling assembly can be extended and retracted between fillings.
• The packages are closed.
• The packages are discharged from the machine.

Of course, this is just a fantasy playing out in my head, and by no means an indication that it would work in practice. We don’t really have processing stations in here either. Even if it seems transfers between transport systems or the filling of boxes is some kind of processing, in reality it is only transport. Or rather: the processing turns into transport by means of flexible systems like XTS and XPlanar. The setup and closing of cartons are actual processing steps. I left them out because current methods don’t seem to be the limiting factor, rather, it’s the formatting, transport, and filling of the pouches themselves.
For other machines, however, the question remains whether certain stations could achieve such throughput without parallelization. Could a filling or sealing station be accelerated? Possibly. With Beckhoff’s XTS with NCT, processing stations up to a certain mass and power could even be mounted onto XTS systems themselves. This makes it completely open which component ultimately moves.
Certainly, this would come with increased effort and many unexpected influences that would likely appear during implementation.

In the same way, I can imagine filling machines or almost any other type of machine. In general, I find motion systems like Beckhoff XTS and XPlanar fascinating. I would love to take part in projects that use such technology.

It’s good that I unloaded this here. If that weren’t the point of such a blog entry, I would keep fabricating more machines or entire factories in my imagination forever.
Now I can turn to other projects again.